My friend Ben Brown and I left Colorado Springs for the Charlie Meyers State Wildlife Area before sun up, but we knew by the time we got there we'd still be getting a late start.

This was a little more than a week ago, and the spawning run of brown trout that blast up the river every year around this time hadn't begun in earnest, although a few of the large browns had been spotted and even fewer had been caught.

Ben Brown has an uncanny ability to catch South Platte River trout on streamers.
(Ed Engle)

But the word gets around fast, and we weren't surprised to see that there were already a bunch of vehicles parked in the "lower parking lot."

I looked at Ben, who guides fly-fishers year-round on this section of the South Platte River, and asked if someone had written a newspaper article or posted something online about the brown trout being in the river.

He said he didn't know about anything, but anymore the fishermen "just show up" this time of year.

It's nothing new. Fishermen have been heading to the river for the early spring spawning runs of rainbow trout and Snake River cutthroat trout for years. Although it took a little longer for them to discover the fall run of brown trout, it's well known now and may even be more popular than the spring runs.

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None of this mattered to me because I was on the river to learn a little more about Ben's streamer fishing techniques.

I met Ben five years ago when I guided him on this same section of the South Platte River. At the time, he was a 25-year-old fly-fishing fanatic who tied flies and worked for a fly shop in Michigan.

Ostensibly, he was in Colorado visiting family friends, but I think he really came to check out the fishing and figure out if he could make a living as a guide and fly-tier out West. As it turned out, we had an exceptional day fishing the trico hatch during his guided trip.

Ed Engle
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PAUL AIKEN
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The next spring he moved to Colorado Springs and started guiding for a local outfitter. I kept in touch over the years because Ben was among the best fly-fishers I had ever guided. He had a real knack for fishing small dry flies and nymph imitations to the South Platte River's selective trout along with an uncanny ability to catch trout on streamers.

It's important to note that most South Platte River fly-fishers are well versed short-line nymph fishermen, but other than swinging a wooly bugger now and then they seldom fish streamers. Ben said he had to learn to fish streamers in Michigan because there were so many logs on the stream bottom that it was difficult to dead drift a nymph without getting snagged.

Over the years I've seen him modify his Michigan streamer tactics to the South Platte River. He prefers fishing a floating fly line with a weighted streamer knotted to the end of a 10-foot long leader.

When it comes to specific streamer patterns, he adheres to the old adage, "light water, light fly; dark water, dark fly," which means he uses a white or light-colored fly in clear water and a black or dark-colored fly when the water is off-color. He often uses a two-streamer rig, especially when he needs to get down deeper.

Although I've seen him fish the classic quartering downstream swing presentation a few times, you're much more likely to see him cast straight across stream and quickly retrieve the streamer. He'll even cast straight upstream and retrieve the streamer as fast as he can strip the fly line back in.

Last week, Ben concentrated his streamer fishing on the deeper holes and runs because we weren't spotting any fish in the shallow water.

"I'll sight fish the streamer to them if I spot fish, but I think at these lower water flows and with the bright sun, any larger fish are going to be in the deeper water," he said.

Brown believes it's important to cover ground when fishing streamers. He makes four or five well placed casts to a hole, and if he doesn't get a strike he moves on. Like most of the better Dream Stream fly-fishers, he's constantly trying to spot trout.

"It's really satisfying to spot a trout, make a good streamer presentation and then successfully hook and land that fish. It's even more satisfying when I help a client hook a nice trout using a streamer. And believe me, you'll know if the trout takes the fly when you fish streamers," Brown said.

I should add as a postscript that a few days after Ben and I visited the river, the volume of water released from Spinney Mountain Reservoir was increased, which ought to make the sight fishing even better.

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